I heard about this.  My daughters both attend BCSD.  The fact that they want to send teachers all around is diplorable.  What will happen, these teachers will just maybe move outta state, or worse QUIT!.  Oh, what's that gonna do????  Leave our kids in the dust with teachers that don't like kids. 

I'm also sick of teachers HAVING TO TEACH the kids to the books/WORKSHEETS.  Where's the creativity and latitude?  We are pumping out robot teachers....ARRRGGGHH!  

The no child left behind, is bringin' my gifted girls down, they are going to lose interest in school, because they are getting stuck waiting for the other kids to catch up.....thank goodness for junior high coming up, so they can be in advanced classes, where my kids can leave the others behind, that really don't want to learn.

Color me there to show support.  WOOF!

NCLB was a dumb idea to begin with, but hang on, it will be over in a couple of years.

These are the same teachers who want put in their contract that they DO NOT have to answer emails from parents. SIGH

"this means EVERYONE, even cozy and happy staffs at the top schools, or hard-working, united, making-gains staffs at some of the "bottom" schools. your favorite teachers would and could be moved, and they will, if these changes are made."

So will my least favorite teachers.

You left out jaded, shiftless, "blame everybody else" teachers at the top and bottom schools.  My bosses can transfer me anyplace they want - or more specifically anyplace where I can best meet the needs of our company.  At the same time you make the argument above, I have heard the reverse - in a different context - where people complain that the "coziest, happiest staffs" (and most experienced) are left at the top schools, and there is nobody but the rookies and burnouts to help the bottom.

Fortunately, this is an entirely hypothetical question since there isn't a neighborhod school within the BCSD that is at the "top" of anything. 

I volunteer helping some children who live in the Emerson/Sequoia Junior High School area. (I'm doing my best not to name which one.)  At one of what you might call the "making gains, united, working hard" schools I attended an honors award ceremony.  The Principal could not make it.  The Vice Principal could not make it.  A teacher's aide(?) and Cal-State student called out the recipient names and missed on about 1/3 of the Hispanic surnames. 

A couple of months later we returned for a school talent show.  We arrived 20 minutes late - something I was sure would doom us from being allowed to enter.  Instead the performance had not even started.  Several of the acts never showed up - and though one band was ready to go, the show was cancelled. 

We have an entire west side of town built on a single parental resolve:  "My kid(s) will not go to BCSD." 

Stop electing former BCSD members to County and State offices, so the district can stop being used simply to develop name recognition for Abernathy candidates. 

And insist that teachers be subject to discipline including transfers, and more readily including termination if they do not meet the NCLB standards.

NCLB was a dumb idea to begin with, but hang on, it will be over in a couple of years. Oh really?? Since when was accountability ever a bad idea??  It may need some work to improve, but I am sick and tired of sending my money to schools and teachers that do not have to measure up to anything.  Lets face it. There is no competition in the education arena.  IF there is no competition, then at the very minimum you need to have standards and accountability.  You want to get rid of NCLB? Fine.  THen you need to open up the education monopoly to vouchers. PS.  Funny how people that think NCLB is a dumb idea think having the government run all of health care is a good idea...

NCLB doesn't serve those who are unable to grasp ideas as quickly or those who really do have special needs.  No Child Left Behind does not address those students.  Children who have been diagnosed with disabilities get frustrated and left behind.  Why does the government not address those childrens' needs? As to the gifted classes...you better check them out!  Not all schools have those!

#1  To Woof.  I really hate to burst your bubble but when your kids get to junior high they won't be "allowed" to leave the unmotivated learners behind - unless things have changed, and I haven't seen or heard any indication of that.  When I was a junior high VP, the mother of a student who was a math whiz pleaded with the district to let her pick him up two days a week just before lunch, and transport him to CSUB for an advanced math class (the instuctor had interviewed the student and was willing to let him take the class).  She would wait for him and transport him back to school - he would eat his lunch in the car and only miss a portion of the class before lunch and the one after lunch (which was his math class anyway.  I thought it was a great idea - an academic opportunity for the student and a public relations opportunity for the district.  Know what downtown administration said?  "No."  Any reason given for denying this student that opportunity?  "No."  The student had to remain at school in a class that must have seemed like "bonehead" math to him.  Maybe when your kids get to high school.......

#2  ToChristopherv.  The administrators at that unnamed school should be reported to the district - maybe they'll be transferred!  You may laugh if you wish.  (I have heard that the principal of EJH is rather hard to catch at school.)  Of course, with the problems they've had with administrators, I guess you're lucky to have a principal at all.  Parents shouldn't have to put up with that.  And....in reference to BCSD board members slipping into higher office lubricated by the Abernathy Cartel....  Did anyone else make the connection between the newly appointed board member, Donald Vereen who resides in Ward 1 and Irma Carson announcing that this would be her last term on the City Council?  In three years.....hmmmm, mark your calendars!

#3  To My Dear Friend, Carla.  I don't think most people understand how important transfer rights are to teachers.  True, many businesses can transfer employees for the good of the company.  But the transfer policy that district negotiators want is not necessary for the good of the schools or the children.  It is aimed, specifically, at giving principals and district administrators more power over the teachers.  The district has many good principals but a few can only be characterized as dictators.  They want, no, they demand, blind obedience from their staff and if they do not get it - they now can make things very difficult for a teacher but if the district is allowed to change contract language, the principal can just "transfer 'em out".  If you love children, enjoy teaching, consider parents as parners in the educational process, and children are learning in your classroom - why should you be transferred merely because you told the principal that you didn't think that his yard duty schedule was fair?

I also checked out the Educator Roundtable site and printed the Petition for Dismantling NCLB.  Gotta start getting my 115 signatures!  I thought that Congress had to reconsider NCLB starting in December this year.  I assume that is why the petition is being circulated now.  Good.  Get an early start!

I hope that you will continue the fight secure in the conviction that your cause is worthy and in the knowledge that many stand in support of your right to be treated as the professional you are - a teacher.

McDougle.  You spotted the correct school.  I actually didn't know - or think to consider - that the Principal might have the district to answer to.  (It's almost as if I was educated at EJH).  

Are you arguing that teachers at EJH would have much more success, but for the administration?

I guess my trouble is that the youth on whose behalf I volunteered, never seemed to get much homework.  What they did get wasn't all that hard to do, and most telling, they'd be in danger of failing a class four weeks before the grades came out, and somehow would end up with B's by report card time.  Their writing and language skills were atrocious.  I would try and insist to them that their homework be corrected and improved before being turned in, only to be told the teacher didn't mind its condition.  So these kids would show me A's and B's on report cards, when the work was sloppy. 

These are not my children and I do not spend 5 nights a week with them.  I could make my children correct their homework, and follow up with their teachers.  It just didn't seem right that the bell curve at EJH was so low that if you were simply turning homework in and minding the teacher in class, you could make the honor roll.  These kids are in for a big surprise come SAT time.